Calling on President Biden to Strive for Gender Parity in Ambassador Appointments

The Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LCWINS) and Women Ambassadors Serving America (WASA) have joined forces calling upon President Biden to strive for gender parity in his ambassador appointments. Read our letter here.

As a presidential candidate, President Biden committed to striving for gender parity in his senior national security appointments. His candidate website and his statement on International Women’s Day were explicit statements that gave us hope we would see historic improvements in women’s representation in leadership.

We remain hopeful that President Biden will meet his commitment to gender parity in senior national security leadership. The tracker on our website indicates that, while President Biden is doing historically well in terms of including women in his senior leadership, his National Security Council is 36% women.

Within the field of national security, it has been particularly difficult for women to break through to leadership. As national security practitioners, we lag behind other professions in the inclusion of women throughout the ranks. Our aim is to highlight this imbalance and spark the will and the prioritization required to see change in this and future Administrations.

Ambassadorial appointments are a reflection of the United States to the world. Ambassadors are more than just a subset of all senior national security appointments; they are a particularly important signal to Americans and those who seek to engage with or do harm to our nation that we live by our values. LCWINS and WASA have joined together today to seek diplomatic leadership that is diverse as America itself.